Daily market report
Cattle prices today
Real numbers from the USDA daily cattle reports, refreshed automatically every day so you can price a sale, a load or a listing against what packers actually paid.
Fed cattle — 5 Area weighted average
These are negotiated purchases in the five major feeding areas (TX-OK-NM, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa-Minnesota). Live prices are per hundredweight on the hoof; dressed prices are per hundredweight of carcass.
Boxed beef cutout
The cutout is what wholesale beef is bringing per hundredweight. It is the single best leading signal for where fed cattle bids go next: when the cutout runs up, packers have room to pay more.
A wide Choice–Select spread means buyers are paying up for quality grade, which usually pulls better-bred feeder cattle higher too.
Last 14 reporting days
Compare today against the past two weeks before you set a price or accept a bid. Fed cattle trade in weekly waves, and one strong afternoon does not make a trend.
How to use these numbers on your own cattle
Fed cattle prices set the ceiling for everything below them. Feeder calves are priced off what a feedyard thinks a finished steer will be worth months from now, so a rising fed market lifts calf bids and a falling one pulls them down fast.
Convert before you compare. A price per hundredweight times the animal's weight in hundreds of pounds gives you the per-head number: a 1,400 lb finished steer at $224.48 per cwt is 14 x that figure. Bred cows, pairs and bulls do not follow this table — they trade per head on production value.
Dressed prices assume roughly a 62–64% dressing percentage. If you are comparing a live bid to a dressed bid, do that math before deciding which is better.
Where these numbers come from
Everything on this page is pulled straight from USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Livestock Market News reports (LM_CT100 for fed cattle and LM_XB403 for boxed beef) — mandatory price reporting from actual packer purchases, not estimates or asking prices.
For your own county, pair this with your local sale barn's weekly report. Regional spreads are large and hauling distance eats the difference quickly.
Keep reading
- Cull cow and bull prices today — what slaughter cows are bringing.
- Boxed beef prices today — the wholesale beef market in detail.
- Cattle prices per head, explained — per head vs. per cwt for bred cows, pairs and calves.
- How much does a cow cost? — purchase price plus yearly carrying cost.
Cattle prices by state
Same USDA numbers, read for your state, with the week-over-week move and per-head math.
Source: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Livestock, Poultry and Grain Market News, refreshed automatically every day. These are national and regional wholesale numbers, not a quote for any one animal. Your local sale barn report is the truest read on your area.